Friday Five- Friends!

It’s time for another Friday Five! Jan over at RGBP writes:
Ever since I found out I could be the hostess for the third Friday Five of each month, I have not been able to get the thought of friends out of my mind. Being an only child (all growed up) who moved around a lot in my lifetime, friends have always been very important to me. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: "The way to have a friend is to be a friend."

So today let's write about the different kinds of friends we have, like childhood friends, lost friends, tennis friends, work friends, and the list goes on. List 5 different types of friends you have had in your life and what they were/are like.

Let’s see, this is one of those that I have been thinking about all day…and here is what I have come up with:
1. Intergenerational friends - right now, these include my advisor from my youth group (who is now 79) and his wife, our daughter’s godparents who are near retirement and grandparents, my seminary advisor who recently retired….and a couple of my daughters’ babysitters, who are now in their early 20s. I love what I can learn from both younger and older friends, and, well, just the great time we have together.
2. Church friends – we have some of these from each of the four important churches in our lives thus far. I just spent an evening with the missions team from the church where my husband and children belong, here in our town. I laughed until I cried – these are really fun folks! We have spent a week each of the past five summers with this group and it is a blast. At each of the churches, we have become friends with the clergy, which is funny because I myself wasn’t in seminary in the first two places. I’ll include seminary friends here, mostly because I don’t have many I keep in touch with. I don’t feel good about not making lasting friendships in seminary, but it just didn’t happen. BUT I do have some great friendships with people I knew WHILE I was in seminary.
3. Colleagues – I’m thinking here of people with whom I’ve actually worked, both as an engineer and now as a pastor. Funny enough, two of the closest friends I have in this category are men – I guess that isn’t too odd, since I worked first as a civil engineer. And also funny enough, these two were/are my bosses. They are mentors as well as friends, but we have a lot of very good times together. I hope they would consider me a friend too. I also belong to the Order of St. Luke, and after retreating with them last year, am pleased to count some of my brothers and sisters in the order as friends. Also, through my various connections with the Episcopal Church, I am happy to have colleague-moms to share both parts of my life with.
4. Fraternity siblings – I lived in a co-ed fraternity during my four years as an undergraduate, and we took our pledge seriously (see the sermon post below if you want to know the pledge). And I am happy to say that through the miracle of Facebook, I have gotten back in touch with a bunch of them. But even before FB, there were two girlfriends here who have, through instant messaging and phone calls, remained close in the 20 years we have known each other. These are the friends who know me best, whom I can call at any time, day and night, who will always be there for me and I for them. My husband is also a member of the fraternity, so I count him here. Great, strong bonds.
5. Mom-friends. We moved to this town when I had a three year old and a newborn. And for the past 8 years I have developed some very strong friendships and networks here – book club, preschool moms, babysitting co-op, elementary school playground – these are the places I go daily and am renewed and rejuvenated. Here in this town I am mom first, pastor second (the church I pastor part-time is 40 miles away). I have walking buddies and soccer buddies to play with. I have people I can talk to about bad days and good ones. It is a great life in a great place. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
It is late, but I will as my bonus link my bosses blog – Electric Circuit Rider (you can get a sense of his humor from the title). I like what he writes. I like how he thinks. I don’t know if I will be able to spend 38 years in the ministry like he has, but I hope I still sound as fresh and enthusiastic after those years if I do.

Thanks Jan, what a great chance to reflect!